Alpha releases used to be a way for game developers to preview the first build of their game for testing, but nowadays publishers are using alpha releases as a way to draw fans into the franchise, by opening the gates a few months early.

Evolve's first alpha release offered what could be considered a finished product. Apart from the connection and matchmaking issues on launch, the game offered a rather bug-free and exciting experience with minimal crashes.

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This is in part due to Evolve's developers, Turtle Rock Studios, getting feedback for Evolve over the past year at conventions. The team has had a solid year of feedback to work from, but it looks like their first taste of server and multiplayer issues hit them hard.

Even with the issues on the multiplayer, Evolve might be one of the freshest experiences in the gaming world, coming in 2015. When all game developers are shooting for the League of Legends and DoTA 2 5 vs 5 MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) style, Evolve offers a completely different 4 vs 1 experience.

The aim of the game is to hunt the monster, or if the player is the monster, hunt the other four players down. Time plays a pivotal role in Evolve, with the players pushing to find the monster before he gets big, and the monster eating mobs to grow stronger for the late-game.

The four human classes include: assault, dealing out the most damage; medic, the healer of the team; support, offers power for all teammates; trapper, places traps to keep the monster in place. The monster has the same sort of abilities in every playthrough.

Combat, for the most part, is an interesting if someone bland experience. The assault lacks any real depth and the trapper is probably the most interesting class, unless you have a history of healing buddies instead of dealing damage.

On the monster's side, it is a bit lonely and the switch to third person brawler is odd. The lack of smart map design also leads to smart teams finding the monster quickly. Hopefully, by the time Evolve is officially released, there will be more hiding spots and places to farm for the monster.

Even though Evolve is a fresh experience - like Titanfall - it starts to fizzle out after 20 games. The gameplay is remarkably repetitive for a MOBA. Players might lose interest after a few days of playing through, especially since it is a multiplayer-only game.

Evolve, even with the technical issues, might be stuck when it comes to variety. The game feels almost finished, but Turtle Rock Studios need to expand on the number of weapons and map variety, in order to gauge players for more than two hours.

Tags2k games, turtle rock studios, Evolve alpha, MOBA, shooter, Evolve, video games 2015